Friday, April 17, 2015

Women and Pop Culture Entry 11

Alexandria Scudder
17 April 2015
Entry 11
Comic Relief
            This week in class we discussed female comedians such as Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Wanda Sykes, and Mindy Kaling.  These women all use comic relief to discuss issues in society to entertain and inform people.  Some topics these women discuss are fashions styles geared toward different body types, racial terms, men and women inequality, and rape.  Although these topics are not something to joke about by putting a humorous tone to them it makes the topics easier to discuss.
            No one enjoys talking about rape and the awful frequency of it but by adding a humorous tone to topic of rape these comedians open up a more comfortable discussion.  For example Wanda Sykes states, “That’s why I wish our pussies were detachable.  That way you could just leave it at home.”  (Sykes, 47) Indicating that women should not be forced to do something that they do not want to do and that the world would be much more simple if we were able to detach our female genitalia.  With the comic relief provided encouraging people not to be uncomfortable discussing an uncomfortable topic Wanda Skyes also speaks more serious saying “No means no…in a perfect world. But, we don’t live in that world.”   (Sykes, 46) Assuring the reader that she is fully aware of how unfortunate these circumstances are.

            When comedians discuss such serious topics people tend to give them a lot of backlash when in reality they are not being cruel or non-understanding they are simply trying to make the topic more comfortable for people to talk about.  Creating a more comfortable scenario for people who want to discuss the topic but feel to uncomfortable.  In my opinion, comic relief helps more than it hurts and these women are making a change with the books they have written.

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